I built Observer an AI meeting companion that doesn't join your calls

Rohit Malhotra — Thu, 16 Jul 2026 14:49:54 +0000

I built an AI meeting companion that doesn't join your calls

For the last few months, I've been obsessed with one question.

Why does every AI meeting assistant need to join the meeting as another participant?

Whether it's interviews, customer calls, sales demos or team meetings, most tools either record everything with a bot or focus only on transcription.

I wanted something different.

So I built Observer.

An AI companion that runs locally on your Mac, understands your meeting in real time, helps when you need it, and never joins the call.

Why I built it

I spend a lot of time in meetings.

Sometimes it's technical discussions.

Sometimes interviews.

Sometimes product planning.

Sometimes client calls.

Most AI assistants interrupt the experience. They join the meeting, announce themselves, and often make everyone aware they're recording.

I wanted something that simply stays with me and helps only when I ask.

That became Observer.

What Observer does

Observer continuously listens to your meeting and builds context in real time.

Whenever you need help, it's already caught up.

Some of the features include:

🎙 Live speech recognition

Observer transcribes conversations in real time with low latency.

No waiting until the meeting ends.

💬 AI Answers

Need help answering a question?

Observer uses the live conversation to generate contextual responses instantly.

Great for interviews, sales calls, customer support, brainstorming or technical discussions.

🖥 Screen understanding

Sometimes the answer isn't in the conversation.

It's on your screen.

Observer can understand both your screen and the live meeting context together before generating a response.

📝 Smart meeting notes

Instead of generic summaries, Observer generates notes based on the type of meeting.

Whether it's:

Interview
Technical discussion
Sales call
Team meeting
Lecture
Recruiting

…the recap adapts accordingly.

🌍 Multiple languages

Meetings don't always happen in English.

Observer works across multiple languages, making it useful for global teams.

🎧 Accent recognition

Different accents often confuse transcription systems.

Observer is designed to better understand diverse accents, helping improve transcript quality and AI responses.

⌨ Keyboard-first workflow

No need to keep switching windows.

Everything can be triggered with shortcuts while you're working.

🕵️ Undetectable Mode

This was one of the biggest requests from users.

Observer stays with you without joining your meeting as another participant.

No bots entering your call.

No "AI Assistant has joined the meeting."

Just your workspace.

Pricing

I also wanted pricing that made sense.

Observer currently has two plans:

Pro

$25/month
Unlimited meetings
20 hours/month

Max

$50/month
Unlimited meetings
40 hours/month

An alternative to expensive AI companions

Recently, several AI meeting tools have significantly increased pricing for premium features.

One example is Cluely's $150/month plan that includes its undetectability features.

If you're mainly looking for a private AI meeting companion with real-time assistance, meeting notes, screen understanding and live transcription, Observer offers a much more affordable alternative.

Built with developers in mind

Under the hood, Observer combines:

Real-time speech recognition
Live AI reasoning
Screen understanding
Context-aware responses
Fast keyboard workflows

The biggest challenge wasn't building AI.

It was making everything feel instant enough that it could actually be useful during a live conversation.

Try it

You can learn more here:

🌐 https://getobserver.app

🎥 Watch the demo:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EfMlR_FFfgA

🚀 Product Hunt:
https://www.producthunt.com/products/observer-4?launch=observer-5

Launch discount

To celebrate the launch, I'm offering 20% off for the first 100 users.

Use code:

FIRST100

I'd genuinely love feedback from developers.

What feature would make an AI meeting companion actually useful for you?

I'm especially interested in hearing from engineers, recruiters, founders and people who spend a large part of their day in meetings.

DEV Community: Rohit Malhotra